America’s student debt system is failing millions of people. About 42.7 million borrowers owe more than US$1.6 trillion. More than 5 million have already gone more than a year without making a payment and are in default. Another 4 million were already in late-stage delinquency when the US Department of Education issued its warning last year.

People do not usually end up in default because they are reckless. They end up there because the pay-off they were promised never arrives strongly enough or fast enough. Some cannot find steady work. Others find work that simply does not pay enough to carry the debt. That is what it looks like when a path to mobility stops working for too many people.

That is why apprenticeships matter. They start with work, wages, and skill, not a bill. They allow people to earn an income while they learn. They connect training directly to real jobs and real employers. And they do not belong only to the old trades, important as those trades remain.

America still needs more electricians, welders, plumbers, carpenters, machinists, and construction workers. We need people who can build homes, modernise the grid, maintain infrastructure, and keep the physical country running. But apprenticeship is also being used in teaching, health care, public service, information technology, and cybersecurity. Teacher apprenticeship has spread rapidly in recent years because states and employers are looking for better ways to fill essential jobs.

Several states are making real progress. Illinois has made meaningful moves, including a tax credit of US$3,500 per eligible apprentice, with another $1,500 available when the apprentice or the employer is in an underserved area. North Carolina has built a substantial statewide apprenticeship system. Pennsylvania is putting more money into expansion. This is real progress.

On the other hand, Maryland is showing what it looks like when a state decides that apprenticeship belongs near the centre of an economic mobility agenda. Governor Wes Moore signed the RAISE Act and then launched a US$5-million incentive programme to help employers hire and train more apprentices. His Administration has made clear that apprenticeship is a way to grow the workforce and expand economic opportunity.

For most families, the question is simple: Does a path lead to upward mobility or not?

Too many young Americans were told that if they studied hard; borrowed what they had to; and got the degree, they would move up. Too often, they are still struggling to get started.

The class side of this story is impossible to ignore. The people most likely to get crushed by student debt are the people who had the least room for error to begin with. If your family has savings, a setback is still painful, but it is less likely to become a crisis. If your family does not, one loan payment can throw off the rent, the groceries, the child care, or the car note.

That is why apprenticeships make so much sense. They let people build skill and income at the same time. They let people move forward without first mortgaging their future.

Of course, apprenticeships are not perfect. They have to be funded well. Employers have to take them seriously. Programmes have to help people finish. But those are problems worth solving. They are better problems than telling another generation of young people to borrow first and hope it works out later.

Student debt has left too many Americans stuck. Apprenticeships offer a better road. Illinois has started to travel on it. Maryland is showing how much farther states can go. The rest of the country should be paying attention.

Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former president and CEO of the NAACP.

Ben Jealous.